Must get my slides up for you to scan... never seen a pic of Tannery Straight anywhere else (taken from my car during a lap of the circuit between practice sessions).

Newry you'll find hard because all the pics were taken as close-ups there. The Ray Simpson collection must have bit of stuff, he was standing alongside Robin d'Abrera when the poor guy got barrelled by the Cooper.

Yes Newry is proving troublesome I have little data for it. Tannery is fine layout wise but I need some photos to do the scenery, I want to have the famous Rocky's Tavern fully represented and have some drunks spilling out the front

I know there is a video titled "Long Weekend at Longford". Channel 9 showed a part of it during the 1992 Belgian GP telecast. Thought about getting it when I was doing Longford for GP2, but in the end I didn't get it. I've got a site about Longford by a person from Tasmania but I don't know the address, fortunately I saved the page and it should have his e-mail still on it, he'd be a good person to get on to. I'll try to find the page for you.

Thanks William & Moody I already have both the video and the book I highly recommend them both quite enjoyable action on the video and some high drama in the book.

That page would be great thanks William.

Ray I agree Rob Saward seems to really know his stuff when it comes to Longford now if he would only answer his email

Finally Moody yes it is quite amazing I'm down to 2.15's in the early GPL version and when camber and elevations are added it should be around 2.08 about 5 seconds off the times of the greats, sounds about perfect to me! Of course the GPL greats will probably break 2 Minutes as they don't have to worry about a little thing like avoiding killing themselves.

oh yeah and fast phew it is fast I was hitting 320KPH on the flying mile

OK I'll go into detail on the way GPL models its cars I'm sure at least one of you will find this interesting. There are 3 Basic types in the game. One type (F1) with sub categories

1. Formula 1 - These cars are comprehensively modeled all the way down to their specific handling & engine traits for the 7 main Marques raced in 1967. The level of detail in the modelling of the handling dynamics is unprecedented even the moving parts are modelled in the engine and everything has a wear co-efficient so you have to look after the machinery.

2. Advanced Trainer - These cars are a dumbed down version that does not have a full physics model to make them easier to drive they do however have a 2.5L engine

3. Basic Trainer - These cars are the same as the advanced trainer but only have a four speed gearbox and a 2 litre engine.

HOWEVER!

With the release of the GPL Engine Manager a utility that allows the user to swap engines between chassis you can have a fully modelled Formula 1 chassis mated with a 2.5L engine essentially giving you a Tasman spec car! These cars are called FD by the Engine Manager, I have no idea what FD means!
Because only one type of 2.5L engine is modelled If you took a Lotus or a Brabham, the easier to handle and more nimble Brabham has the advantage as they both have the same engine and it is down to chassis traits not power anymore.

Yeah Mountford is one area that we have near perfect and we are well aware of that tree which is going to be quite interesting to do. That bump coming into Longford I'm going to make at first in original spec just to see how much air I can get But in the finished version of course the proper planed off version will be in place.

Completely off topic, the Clipsal 500 is coming up soon in early April. I'll be going down there again this year and I will take a video camera in hand for the trip home. If i don't get down there before hand you can guarantee I'll try to get a taped lap of Lobethal at 60kph and at... umm, some other speed not too above the law

Ben I'll also get a reverse lap for prosperity. Anybody going down there btw?

Sorry Bernd, but I haven't been able to find the page, but I haven't had much time to spare at the moment. Just started Year 11, and over the last couple of days I've had to write a four-minute persuasive speech, learn it and present it today, and now I've got to do an eight-minute persuasive speech tonight, and I haven't thought of a topic yet!! Any suggestions?

By the way, if you ever need a beta tester for Longford, you know where to find me

I don't consider myself to be a Longford expert, but I was fortunate enough to have some laps around there in the early 1970s before they began to carve it up. Since then I have visited a few times, increasingly disturbed at how completely they are destroying it.

A couple of points:

I understand that Long Bridge became narrower somewhere along the line, in that logs (probably telegraph poles) were laid along each side of the roadway along the base of the timber side rails.

Quite why this was done I am not sure. Perhaps to prevent cars - or even more likely, trucks - from ripping out the side railings.

You would need to study photographs year by year to pick when it was done. I know I have seen pics of it in both forms. Rob Saward perhaps knows... If he ever answers your e-mails. Perhaps I should give him a prod. He has gone back to full-time employent now, as well as running his rare books and brochures business on the side, and trying to complete the Longford book. So I am not surprised you don't hear from him.

The other point about the track that might have some bearing on what you are doing is the long left-hand bend before Newry Bridge. I was there with Jack Brabham in the early 1990s, doing a piece for a TV report. There was no fence of any sort beside the road, although there was one down a very steep embankment. If you went off the road, you would have had to be almost at a standstill to drop sharply enough to hit the fence. With any speed at all, a car would easily have cleared the fence into the cow paddock. I seem to remember some mid-sized trees in there and could picture a car landing right in the top of one if it went off.

I asked Jack, "Did it ever worry you at all, to know you would be coming through here virtually flat, with nothing to stop you flying out there?"

He said, "I've never seen it before. I didn't know what was out there. I only looked at the road... I didn't ever intend to go off there anyway, so why would I need to know."

You'd be in the same boat as me if you got Legends, Barry.... it would absorb all the time you now use for sleeping and working, leaving only time for eating, and that would be under attack too.

I agree, it's necessary to have the proper rig-out to make the most of it. Tried the hyper-simulator a few years ago, brilliant.

As for the drop off the side of the road, at that point they would have been more than busy enough lining up for the flat-out entry onto the bridge.

Regarding the bridge, there were substantial timbers along the edges as shown in my slides. I have a number looking straight onto and at an angle, and it appears to me that the timbers are what you would normally expect to see in that setting. perhaps they are 9" square, and certainly the don't look like afterthoughts.

My photos are from the 1966 meeting, so if there was any extra timber added, it would have to only have been for either 1967 or 1968. There are no photos in RCN of the Long Bridge at either meeting.

If Jack mentioned it, then it was 1967... he wasn't there for the wet one.

I forgot to mention that the Tasman carset has just been released for GPL which is just perfect now when we can get Longford, Wigram & The Farm finished & released we'll be on the way to the entire Tasman series.... Have a look!

Can you find Alec Mildren's son, Bernd... he might have the film that Alec shot there in 1965... wouldn't be surprised if he filmed more years than that... and it might have been 66 anyway... I was talking to Alec in the pits on the Friday afternoon and he was doing some filming, wouldn't be surprised if he didn't run off a lap of the track at some time.

I frankly think it would be hard, at this distance, to see the Reims connection.

In those far-off days there was the long straights to compare, but today the photos we see are all of the corners. And the railway crossing, the bridges, the town... all unfamiliar when compared with Reims.

Like this one of Clark and Brabham between the Viaduct and the King's Bridge:

Or the bushes and trees each side of the long Tannery Straight, this being after the railway level crossing, a part of the circuit which never saw a photographer... this is a scene between races, 1965:

Dennis the reference of Longford to Reims is more the atmosphere and ambience of the event more than the circuit itself. It was commonly called the Reims of the South Pacific at the time even on promotional material. I wouldn't have a clue who coined the phrase.

OK circuit layout is as good as finished, the length is almost exactly 4.5 Miles. Big deal you may say but it has taken a month of work to get this far. GPL is bloody hard to edit let me tell you

Only a few more months to go, if we don't get to frustrated with the monotony of the work and top ourselves

This is the site I was talking about. I only found it by stumbling across an email I'd sent to the guy maintaining this page, I thought I'd lost all that correspondence when I changed computers and lost my Inbox. Oh well.

Don't know if it is of any help to you, but I think it's one of the only websites to have any info on Longford, pics or otherwise.

BTW I was the one working on Lakeside, but I've had to stop work to devote more time to schoolwork (never, ever thought I'd say that) I had a layout, but then I found a much more accurate map. I was working of the map that is found in V8 Supercar programmes, which after driving it in GP2 I knew was wrong, so I had to modify it but it was still wrong. I doubt F1 cars could go through Hungrys corner flat in fifth!To do Lakeside justice would involve making a new layout based on the new map, but since I've just started holidays, I might see what I can do, to perhaps save time for the person who can find time to do it properly.

The outstanding Programme Cover modified from the original artwork by John Bradley from BAPOM

The track map done by me! These will be redone better by John when the track is presentable enough to send him

Just before the Start/Finish line this area is about 60% complete

The first flat out kink showing the town of Longfords Water Supply tower. This area is about 90% complete

The drop down to the Viaduct. This area is about 80% complete

Nearly onto the Kings Bridge. This area is about 60% complete

Just out of the Pub Corner. This area is about 40% complete

The rail crossing on Tannery Straight. This area is about 90% complete

The heavy vegetation on Tannery Straight. This area is about 90% complete

The nye flat kink onto Long Bridge. This area is about 60% complete

The tricky uphill Newry Corner. This area is about 40% complete

The braking point for the very tight Mountford Corner. This area is about 30% complete

Most of the graphics you see are mine and some are placeholders. As you can see I am no Michael Turner. If we can get the basic look of the track and the feel exactly right I'll be happy. Any and all comments very welcome.

I think you have done a great job, it looks very good. The exit of Newry corner looks like it has the right elevation change and the run to Mountford looks lifelike!
Are you still after a scan of the 68 programme cover? Because I have one I can scan for you.

Well we've decided to use the 67 cover but I'd dearly love the 68 cover and anything else you have at hand! My email address is jamo@bigpond.net.auThe run to Mountford looks a lot better than it has any right to thanks to the awesome background graphics that team member Gustaf made using a panoramic picture. There are still loads of tree's and foliage to go into that area.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bernd
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bernd Hi all, I am after .... Photo's of .... the famous Viaduct ... [/QUOTE]

Bernd, here is a humble offering from one with little else on Longford. I post it here on the off-chance that some of the Longford experts perhaps don't have it. It's a lovely shot and it came from a fairly obscure British annual called "Motor Racing Year 1966-7" from Knightsbridge Publications.

If you'd like a hi-res version to see more detail, just PM me and I'll be happy to oblige.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jrosenzweig Completely off topic, the Clipsal 500 is coming up soon in early April. I'll be going down there again this year and I will take a video camera in hand for the trip home. If i don't get down there before hand you can guarantee I'll try to get a taped lap of Lobethal at 60kph and at... umm, some other speed not too above the law

Ben I'll also get a reverse lap for prosperity. Anybody going down there btw?[/QUOTE]

If anyone wants a driver ... or any contemporary pics of Lobethal - see moi! Here in the Adelaide Hills I'm just minutes away from the circuit!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bernd ... Though the lure of the 3 Litre Pre-Wing F1 will eventually get me along by itself. You'll have to take a nice tape recorder so that you can record the Ferrari 312 ... [/QUOTE]

Sadly, Bernd, Once again, I don't think the old F1 cars (aka Formula Adelaide) are featured this year. I don't think they're appreciated (wot are them things?) by those who follow the taxi racing. I certainly couldn't see'em in the Clipsal 500 website - http://www.adelaide500.net/

Vanwall, that picture is from a different angle and is one I have never seen before, it will be handy. Please email the high-res version to my email address which was up the page a bit. You're a very lucky man to have a circuit of such quality in your backyard, even though the road surface leaves something to be desired these days.

Tragic about the F1's no longer being at Adelaide, though I must say it was rather dangerous imagine hitting a solid concrete wall at speed in a Lotus 49 you would be unlikely to survive.

Vanwall I already have Lobethal on VHS and i must say its very nice except for the snails pace

Ben i don't think thats the reason why the Clipsal organiser got rid of the event, I believe its more to do with money and the fact that the nice F1 cars don't attract enough attention. How many hoons drunk on the oval in front of the big screen want to see a F1 car from the 60's? Not many, they'd rather see something else. Thank god for Historic racing ben